A Replacement Mad Hatter
by Icy Metal and Frost Blue Roses
Summary: When someone dies in Wonderland, the inhabitants send Alice, a seemingly innocent and quirky child to find a replacement for them. Then they set their sights on Hannah, the teen is about to get more than she bargained for when she agrees to watch after the girl and become the Mad Hatter's replacement. Dark, twisted, modern-day Alice in Wonderland.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hey, guys! Just a little something that will eventually get more chapters. This was inspired by "The Tea Party" by LaBohemienne. Enjoy! I should also say that this fanfic has references to the "**_**Alice in Wonderland**_**" movie from 2010. Cameos of original characters from the classic movie will show up later. :)**

**Disclaimer: Do I look like I own "**_**Alice **__**in **__**Wonderland**_**"? I don't. The only things I own here is the plot and my OC's.**

**Leave me a review! Leave me a review! Leave me a review! Please?**

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Chapter One: Meeting Alice

"Hannah, it's time for you to go! Alice's parents are waiting!" Mom shouted up the stairs.

"I'm going! Gimme a minute!" I shouted back, pulling my curly auburn hair back in a ponytail and ran down the stairs and out the door for the house at the end of the street.

"Hi, Hannah. Sorry to call you on such short notice, but we really need to get going," the child's mother, Helen, greeted me, calling her daughter downstairs to meet me before running over a quick list of emergency numbers on the fridge and everything else that I already have committed to memory from many years of doing it.

"Oh, and just to let you now, Alice has some quirky habits prone to driving sitters away. I'll pay you extra for your trouble," she said quickly, smiling lightly when I replied with, "I've been doing this for years and seen quite a few quirky and terrible habits. I doubt whatever Alice dishes out will scare me off."

Watching the door close, I waited a few moments to listen to the sound of the car leaving before turning to the blonde child smiling sweetly up at me. "Well, looks like it's just you and me, kiddo," I said, returning Alice's smile and followed the girl through the house on a sort of tour, pausing ever so often to examine things hanging on the wall and peeking into bedrooms.

"Can we go outside?"

I jolted, snapping out of my thoughts and smiled. "Sure, Cricket. Let's go play," I said nodding my head and followed Alice to the backdoor in the kitchen and out into the enclosed area. "So... what are we gonna play, Alice?" I asked her, trailing after the little girl to the kid sized table surrounded by equally tiny chairs pulled out at odd angles.

"Let's play tea party!"

I mentally rolled my eyes. All she wants me to do is sit in a chair that may not even hold my weight and sip from an empty teacup that fits into the palm of my hand. Nonetheless, I decided to just go with it to appease the girl and smiled, crouching down beside the table. This got a frown from Alice.

"Why don't you sit in the chair, Hannah?" she asked, watching my actions with curiosity.

I shifted my stance to where I now sat cross legged beside her and replied, "I'm not sure the chairs would hold me and I don't wanna break them."

"You won't. My daddy sits in the chair when he plays with me," she giggled and I went on to stare at the spots around the table with apprehension. "I don't think I wanna test that theory, Cricket," I said, getting up to go back inside.

"Where are you going? The party just started," the child pouted, getting up to follow me.

"What's a tea party without tea? I'm going to supply our tea party with real tea instead of your imaginary brew," I said cheerily. When the tea was ready, I filled Alice's little teapot and got down near the table as I had before, serving the younger girl some tea in her cup and poured myself some.

We continued on like this before Alice let out a squeal, making me jump at the noise. "McTwisp, you're late! Again!" Alice chided and I looked in the direction she was talking in and spotted a white rabbit curled against the side of the house. Getting out of her seat, Alice went and scooped the animal into her arms and plopped it down in a seat before it promptly jumped out and bounded off to the other side of the yard and disappeared.

"Does that little guy come around often, Cricket?" I questioned, cocking my head to the side slightly and grinned when she replied with, "Yeah, but he's always running late for something, so he never stays long. He never tells me where he's going."

"How rude of me! I forgot to introduce you to my other guests!" Alice cried out, directing my attention to the seat next to me and said, "This is the Duchess and her pet cat, Cheshire." Here, she reached under the table and held up a brown cat and sat her in the Duchess' seat. "And this is the Caterpillar," she said reaching into the seat next to her and held up a large blue caterpillar for me to see.

By the time the introductions were over, I "made friends" with a carpenter, a walrus, a mock turtle, her pet cat Dinah (the same cat she introduced to me as Cheshire), a pair of twins named Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and McTwisp the rabbit.

It was hours later when Alice's parents got home and found Alice passed out on the couch. "She was so tired she decided she couldn't make it to her bedroom," I explained.

"You must've played real hard with her," her father, Charles, said lightly, smiling at the sight of the blonde child. "I hope she wasn't too much trouble for you."

"Oh, not at all! We had a tea party that lasted a couple hours and I met all her friends. She wasn't any trouble at all," I replied.

"Would you mind too much if we asked you to watch her again tomorrow, Hannah? Charles has a business meeting and a party after that and Alice won't be allowed to come," Helen asked, smiling when I accepted, got paid for my job, and went home.

"Hey, Mom, I'm home!" I called, kicking my shoes off at the door and wandered into the kitchen to find the woman sitting at the table in the midst of eating dinner.

"How was your day with Alice, Hannah?" she asked.

"It was interesting. I got to meet her imaginary friends and held a tea party in the backyard. We baked some cookies and I chased her around the house, all over the yard, and into the woods a while and she crashed when we got back. She'll be sleeping good tonight," I replied, letting out a yawn.

"Sounds like you're pretty wore out yourself, hon," she said lightly, laughing when I yawned again. "No, that's my way of saying I'm wide awake and ready to go again," I said in between yawns. Finishing up with dinner, I left for my room and changed into a white T-shirt and loose fitting sky blue pants and crawled into bed, exhausted.

OoOoO

Waking up to find herself in her bedroom, Alice kicked off the covers and moved to the other side of the darkened room to the floor length mirror hanging on the closet door. The small child smiled brightly when light flooded into the room from the Looking Glass and stepped through the frame and into the forest on the other side.

"Hi!" the child said cheerily, skipping up to a mushroom occupied by a blue caterpillar. "Is she good enough?" Alice questioned. There was some silence as the Caterpillar took a long drag from his hookah before finally acknowledging the blonde girl and asked, "How far can you pull her in? When you get the answer, then we'll talk."

"M'kay!" Alice chirped and skipped away down the path she came from and disappeared through her mirror back into her bedroom.

"Let's just see. Good thing she'll be back tomorrow," Alice said to herself, a crazed smile appearing on her face before falling to sleep again.

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**Author's Note: How'd I do, guys? Did I do good? Was it bad? Or did it suck? I wanna know! Leave me a review, please! And, yeah, I know I promised a bit of suspense and horror, but it'll pop up in later chapters. Bear with me.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: I'm back! Sorry it took so long for the second chapter. I had a serious case of writer's block and temporarily got bored with the story. :P**

**Leave me a review! Leave me a review! Leave me a review! Please?**

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Chapter Two: Wonderland

"Hannah?"

"Yes, Alice?"

"I'm bored. Please can we go outside?"

Looking up from the papers scattered over the table top covered in paints and various other inks, crayons, and colored pencils, I sighed. "You know why we can't. It's raining. I had to walk down here in that and let me tell you, it's cold." That was the third time in twenty minutes that Alice had asked to play outside. Just by looking at her, I can tell she's getting stir crazy and I sighed again. We've already done everything we could think of to do inside and Alice's parents wouldn't be home until late tonight.

"Hannah?"

"Alice, we're not going to play outside. We've been over this," I said sternly, setting my pencil down. "If you got any ideas for entertainment, I'm open to suggestions."

"Tea party?" the child questioned, eyes glittering hopefully.

I shrugged. "Why not?" Getting out of my seat, I set about making the tea while Alice had run off, where, I don't know. A few minutes later, Alice returned wearing a blue frock dress and pinafore carrying a brown blazer jacket and top hat.

"This is for you," she chirped and I accepted them, pulling on the jacket and sat the hat on my head at a jaunty angle, pushing it down to suppress my mass of curls.

"So, you wanna tell me what the fancy getup is for, kiddo?" I asked playfully, getting the cups out and setting them on the table.

"I just thought you'd look good in it. Plus, I think we should invite the March Hare and Dormouse over for tea today as well," she answered, taking a seat at the table. Sitting down across from her, I let my gaze fall on the many pages Alice scribbled on not too long ago and allowed myself to examine each of them, some being pictures of a table outside surrounded by chairs (and this particular one showed up three times already), mushrooms, and many other fantastical places that occupy the girl's mind.

"These are very good, Cricket. Did you come up with these all by yourself?" I asked her, impressed at the amount of detail that went into each drawing.

"Yep!" Alice chirped, dark brown eyes sparkling in excitement.

"Do you have a name for the world in the drawings, Alice?" I pressed her, grinning ear to ear when she exclaimed, "Wonderland!"

"Intriguing. Tell me, what's it like?" I asked her, leaning forward in interest if not to indulge her. Here, the young blonde pursed here lips in thought before grinning and taking my wrist and dragging me into the living room and instructed, "Follow me! Do like I do!" I did as she bade, skipping after her and occasionally bouncing onto a pillow lying on the floor and onto the coffee table until we reached the foyer.

"Now you're back!" she giggled before running down the hallway.

"Where was I at, sweetheart?"

"France!"

I frowned slightly. "... I was in France?"

"C'mon! We're gonna be late for a very important date!" Alice cried, beckoning me to her father's office and we proceeded to run laps around the room before exiting the room and running up and down the stairs a number of times before I was stopped by Alice when she proclaimed, "We're here, Hannah!"

"Where are we now, Alice?" I asked her.

"At the bottom of the Rabbit Hole in the Room of Many Doors. The one you can't fit through is the one that lets you into Wonderland!" Alice exclaimed, leaving me in the foyer again before returning with my tea and a piece of bread. "This is a potion that will make you shrink so you can get in," she explained, handing me the cup.

"And the bread is going to make me grow back to my right size?" I ventured to guess.

"Yep! Hurry up! I wanna show you Wonderland before it gets dark and you have to leave!" she ordered before leading me out of the foyer and into the living room. "You know, it's not as big as I pictured it," she commented, observing the fireplace.

"What isn't?"

"The mushroom, naturally. Here in Wonderland, they can get to be bigger than a house!" she cried, acting for all the world like I should've known this already. I didn't say anything, merely nodding my head and made a face when I caught the younger girl staring.

"May I help you, Cricket?" I inquired, craning my neck to meet her gaze.

"Just coming up with a name for you when you come to Wonderland," Alice said.

"Anything else I need to know about Wonderland, Alice? I wouldn't wanna be caught out here without knowing about the animals that live here," I asked. I didn't receive an answer, instead having my hand seized by an excited Alice and dragged along behind her, listening as she chattered happily away about every sort of creature she could come up with from Bandersnatches and Jabberwockies to momeraths and Jubjub birds.

When Alice's parents arrived home that night, they found Alice sleeping in my arms clutching an empty teacup and me fighting to stay awake long enough to walk home. I had left the Kingsliegh household with a new persona for when I enter Alice's Wonderland named Tara Hightopp otherwise known as the Mad Hatter. Where the girl came up with such a name, I will never know, but I was too amused at the name to protest it.

OoOoO

"I think I got her in pretty deep. Is Hannah good enough?"

"Indeed you got her far enough in. Did she accept her new role here or not, that's the question here. Did you create her new identity, appearance, and everything else she needs for Wonderland to accept her as the new Mad Hatter?"

Alice scowled. "I got her to take Tara Hightopp as a new name, but I'm working on everything else. I'm just a little girl, you can't expect me to come up with everything on the spot," the blonde child complained, crossing her arms and jutting her lower lip in a pout.

The Caterpillar didn't even seem to acknowledge the child's displeasure, taking a long drag before saying, "You did it with the last Hatter. What was his name? Reginald? You did it last time, you can do it again, stupid girl."

"I'm on it. Halloween is around the corner, I'll have something by then."

OoOoO

"Psst! Hey! Girl! Wake up!"

Moaning slightly, I opened my eyes only to shut them again at a bright light flooding into my room that seemed to originate from my mirror. Opening my eyes again, I screamed and instinctively threw a punch at finding a man hanging over my head. The intruder recoiled in pain, letting out a yelp when my fist made contact with his eye.

"Are you out of your mind?!" I screeched, kicking the covers off and advanced on him again only for the intruder to retaliate against me and get me effectively blocked in the corner. For a while, there was a lull in the action between us and I took my time studying him. The first thing I took note of is his height, making him maybe a foot taller than me and creamy colored skin dotted with freckles across his cheeks and nose. And his nose is what kept my gaze on his face as it looked to be too big for it. Unkempt curls of white fell to his shoulders complimenting icy blue eyes. Glancing down at his attire, I wondered how it was that he's able to dress himself in the mornings as an Army green pair of pants, a white dress shirt, sapphire waistcoat and matching bowtie made up his outfit. And to complete the ensemble was a flaming orange overcoat and a large bright green top hat.

"To be frank with you, yes, I am. Quite mad, actually," he grinned before the goofy smile was straightened into a thin line. "But listen. You're in trouble and I don't have a lot of time with you now, so pay attention. She's dragging you into something you don't wanna get mixed up in. That demon child is going to make you think she's nothing more than a harmless child with an active imagination, but she's not! When she gets you to play along, she'll call you by a new name and drive you mad!"

"Are you talking about Alice? Like you said, she's a little girl. What could she possibly do to me?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes, I'm talking about Alice! But tell me, did you let her name you? Did she give you a stupid name?" he exclaimed before his voice dropped a couple octaves and leaned in to whisper, "Did she pour your tea? Is there a specific cup she always gives you?" What's strange is, there really is a certain cup I get every time we have tea.

"A white cup with floral patterns and silver lining on the brim."

The platinum blonde pulled back and began pacing the room in what seemed to be frustration, muttering something to himself before saying, "You're certain it's got floral patterns?"

I nodded.

"You've got to destroy that cup and quit your job babysitting her or else you'll wind up like me!" he exclaimed, eyes wide in what I could only identify as fear.

"Why should I be so scared of her?"

"I'm afraid I can't talk much longer. I must go before they realize I'm gone," he sighed, turning back to the mirror hanging on my closet door.

"Wait! Why should I-?" I asked him again, only to get cut off.

"Heed my warning," he said cryptically, giving me one last look before disappearing through the mirror.

I stood there in the now darkened space, blinking my eyes owlishly as I tried to get used to the dark again, mulling over the unusual young man that previously occupied my room with me. "What was that?"

OoOoO

"Hello, Mr. Hatter."

The young man looked up, not looking forward to dealing with the young child as she approached the table and took a seat to his right. The normally happy glint in Alice's eyes were replaced by something that one would think as madness as she stared the platinum blonde down. "So... how was your trip to see Hannah?" she asked conversationally, giving the Hatter pause before resuming sipping his tea.

"I don't know who you're referring to," he said, his voice muffled by the teacup pressed to his lips.

"Don't play dumbass with me, Reginald!" Alice snapped, slamming her fist on the table. "I know you left Wonderland to see her!"

"Do stop yelling, Alice. I'm fully capable of hearing you up to six inches away," Hatter stated calmly, placing his cup down before leaning in to whisper, "Let me ask you a very serious question. Have you any idea... why a raven is like a writing desk?"

"Ugh!" Alice shouted, too impatient to deal with the madman's antics as she got up to leave. "I'll be back, Hatter. Don't think you're in the clear just yet."

The Hatter watched her go, keeping the crazed grin plastered on his face until she was completely out of sight before he sank into his chair with a look one could only identify as despair. "It appears I'm too late to save her from Wonderland, Ian," he sighed, turning to regard the other man exiting the house not too far away from the table.

"Her?" Ian repeated, brown rabbit ears twitching with interest as he neared the table and took a seat to the Hatter's left. "Alice is replacing you with a girl Hatter? That'd be a first. Wonderland's never had a female Hatter before."

"Don't sound so happy, Ian. I do hope she's not so far into the fantasy of Wonderland and I can still scare her away from Alice before that little demon child can pull her in completely," Hatter sighed, taking his hat off to run a hand through his snowy curls.

"You know you won't be able to, Reggie. The man that was the Mad Hatter before you were tried to deter you, but you continued on until you were so far in you couldn't escape. Unfortunately, you're not going to be able to achieve the result the last Hatter wanted with her. As far as I can tell, you are well and truly too late to stop her from coming all the way into Wonderland. It won't be long until Alice brings her here."

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**Author's Note: Sorry to leave you hanging like that, but I needed to stop at some point without giving too much away. Plus, I need something to carry on with in the next chapter. With that said... leave me reviews to let me know how I'm doing, please! :D**


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